Varying-coefficient partially linear models are frequently used in statistical modelling, but their estimation and inference have not been systematically studied. This paper proposes a profile least-squares technique for estimating the parametric component and studies the asymptotic normality of the profile least-squares estimator. The main focus is the examination of whether the generalized likelihood technique developed by Fan et al. is applicable to the testing problem for the parametric component of semiparametric models. We introduce the profile likelihood ratio test and demonstrate that it follows an asymptotically 2 distribution under the null hypothesis. This not only unveils a new Wilks type of phenomenon, but also provides a simple and useful method for semiparametric inferences. In addition, the Wald statistic for semiparametric models is introduced and demonstrated to possess a sampling property similar

Economists historically measure the degree to which the market is surprised by an earnings announcement by the consensus forecast error, defined as difference between the actual earnings and the consensus forecast. The consensus might be calculated using either the mean or median of security analysts forecasts. The premise of this measure is that the consensus forecast is a good proxy for the markets expectation of earnings. Hence the consensus forecast error captures how surprised the market is when the earnings is announced. The consensus forecast error is a building block of a host of studies across finance, accounting and economics (see for a survey of event studies in Kothari (2001)). For instance, in finance and accounting, it is used in event studies of how efficiently markets react to earnings announcements. Efficient market studies when it comes to bond or currency markets and macroeconomic

Comparing DNA or protein sequences plays an important role in the functional analysis of genomes. Despite many methods available for sequences comparison, few methods retain the information content of sequences. We propose a new approach, the Yau-Hausdorff method, which considers all translations and rotations when seeking the best match of graphical curves of DNA or protein sequences. The complexity of this method is lower than that of any other two dimensional minimum Hausdorff algorithm. The Yau-Hausdorff method can be used for measuring the similarity of DNA sequences based on two important tools: the Yau-Hausdorff distance and graphical representation of DNA sequences. The graphical representations of DNA sequences conserve all sequence information and the Yau-Hausdorff distance is mathematically proved as a true metric. Therefore, the proposed distance can preciously measure the similarity of DNA sequences. The phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences by the Yau-Hausdorff distance show the accuracy and stability of our approach in similarity comparison of DNA or protein sequences. This study demonstrates that Yau-Hausdorff distance is a natural metric for DNA and protein sequences with high level of stability. The approach can be also applied to similarity analysis of protein sequences by graphic representations, as well as general two dimensional shape matching.

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In this paper we introduce an appealing nonparametric method for estimating the mean regression function. The proposed method combines the ideas of local linear smoothers and variable bandwidth. Hence, it also inherits the advantages of both approaches. We give expressions for the conditional MSE and MISE of the estimator. Minimization of the MISE leads to an explicit formula for an optimal choice of the variable bandwidth. Moreover, the merits of considering a variable bandwidth are discussed. In addition, we show that the estimator does not have boundary effects, and hence does not require modifications at the boundary. The performance of a corresponding plug-in estimator is investigated. Simulations illustrate the proposed estimation method.